Fort and Lighthouse Guard the Rocky Narrows Leading to St. John's
To a passenger at sea the cliffs appear unbroken, sure to dash the incoming ship to pieces. Suddenly
the narrow cleft appears (opposite page). In olden times it was closed to hostile vessels with chains. In
World War II, guns studded the crags. When mist creeps in, the foghorn booms from Fort Amherst on the
point. Fog and currents make the coast treacherous; many a ship has left her bones on Newfoundland rocks.
From Gander I flew southeast to Torbay
Airport 5 miles northwest of St. John's, capital
and chief town of Newfoundland (page 789).
A city of 57,000, St. John's is the lusty
metropolis of the Ohio-size island that is
home to 316,000 folk of British and Irish
descent. Denver, Colorado, has more people
than the whole island of Newfoundland.
The Narrows, a deep cleft in the coastal
cliffs, leads into a capacious basin a mile and
a quarter long and half a mile wide. Concrete
gun emplacements around the harbor gateway
yawned hollowly. Long-barreled teeth had
been pulled.
War's recent presence lingered in the U. S.
Air Force's gleaming Fort Pepperrell, at the
north edge of town.
GI's strolled Water
Street, "main drag" of St. John's.
Building and repairs blossomed along the
steep streets and among the smoky brick and
wood structures of the town. The St. John's
Housing Corporation had refurbished a whole
suburb with modern homes and apartments.
Yet St. John's still was a time-tarnished old
seaport, too busy to worry much about show.
In the still dusk I wandered through the
town. A wisp of breeze from the harbor
wafted the breath of the port: fish and the
salt-and-seaweed landwash smell, aromas of
lumber, oil, tar, and-yes!-a whiff of rum.
Children played in the darkening canyons
of the streets. Late fishing boats putt-putted
to the wharves. A star popped out above the
South Side hills.
Sixteen Years of Ups and Downs
In the last 16 years Newfoundland has
counted trials and triumphs.
In 1933 the island-at that time a British
territory with Dominion status-went bank
rupt. A Commission of Government under
the eye of the British Crown established emer
gency rule in February, 1934. Years of eco
nomic ups and downs followed.
World War II struck. Newfoundland's
strategic position thrust her abruptly into
the spotlight. There she rode, an unsinkable
aircraft carrier, splitting the vast distances
between the American democracies and em
battled Europe.*
Canadian and American forces built air and
naval bases across the island's breadth and
assumed the job of her defense. Newfound
* See "Newfoundland, North Atlantic Rampart," by
George Whiteley, Jr., NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGA
ZINE, July, 1941.